Farhat Ali
The cardinal principle behind turning around an economy is to increase state revenue and reduce state costs. Pakistan is in desperate need to have this in place to be able to pay back its loans and sustain its growth.
Imran Khan has made it clear that the PTI government would go for the much-needed cost rationalization of state expenditure and would soon expand its focus from notional cost management to the real big chunks of waste. One such segment is the huge government machinery in place to manage state affairs. In focus today is the federal government structure which over the years has grown where costs to sustain it are not consistent with the deliverables.
Pakistan has around 34 federal ministries governed by 35 federal ministers who are supported by ministers of state, federal secretaries, multiple additional – joint & deputy secretaries, multiple section officers, protocol officers and others. In addition to these are special assistants & advisors with the rank and privileges of federal or state ministers.
Under the ambit of federal ministries operate over 400 autonomous bodies and corporations inclusive of business enterprises in the public sector, utility companies, education institutions, hospitals, regulators, research and development centers in field of agriculture, industry, health sciences and information technology.
The 34 federal ministries in Pakistan are not consistent with the financial strength and economy of the nation which has a GDP of $1.14 trillion (2018) being the 25th largest in the world, whereas, the revenue is 15.5 percent of GDP (2017) while the expenses are 21.3 percent of GDP.
In comparison, Malaysia with a GDP of $ 1 trillion and a 5.9 percent growth rate, is managed by 24 Federal Ministries. India has 57 federal ministries to manage 29 states and seven union territories. It has a GDP of $ 2.84 trillion (2018) with a GDP growth of 7.5 percent. This country has set a target to achieve an economy of $ 5 trillion by 2025.
The functions of a number of ministries are overlapping, superfluous and in conflict hence counterproductive. The deliverables of some ministries are negligible.
After the 18th amendment, a good number of functions under the federal government are superfluous and redundant having been transferred to the provinces. The same is not correspondingly reflected in the rationalisation of human and material resources at the federal ministries and the departments operative under it.
There are around 18 prime regulatory bodies in Pakistan who enjoy the constitutional mandate to regulate and make transparent the conduct of government functionaries, public and private sector while balancing the interests of the government and the public. But their role has invariably been diluted by the more powerful state functionaries.
In a functional democracy, the role of the regulators is essential for fail play by all the institutions of the country and to dispense justice to its people. The last decade witnessed the worst period of encroachment on the rights of regulators. Currently, all the regulators of the country operates under the dictates and political influence of the ministries, largely driven by vested interests, denying them their constitutional role of independence and ability to work in best national interests.
Prime regulators like SBP, SECP, FBR and Statistic Division operate under the dictates of the Finance Ministry. The worst hit to regulators came when PML-N government, in early 2017, usurped the constitutional independence of five regulators and made them subservient to the respective federal ministries, restricting their role as an extended arm of each ministry.
Many organisations under the Federal Ministries possess great human and material resources of which much is dormant while some have excelled well. As a reference in this regard is the Ministry of Science and Technology (MoST) which has the mandate to formulate, among other things, Pakistan’s Science policy and launch technology- driven programs and projects aimed at industrial and economic development of the country. The ministry doing little or nothing insofar as its mandate is concerned.
Under MoST operate three lead entities; namely, National Research Laboratories, National Research Council and National Research Institutes. Under National Research Laboratories are 13 institutions, each engaged in its area of research works such as fuel, metallurgy, marine, precision engineering, analytical research, vacuum technology, food irradiation and charge accelerators.
Some of these institutes are stated to be linked to universities in the public sector and other institutions like Pakistan Institute of Nuclear Science and Technology (PINSTECH).
Under National Research Councils are 15 large autonomous institutions such as Council for Works & Housing Research (CWHR), National Institute of Electronics (NIE), National Institute of Oceanography (NIO), Pakistan Council for Renewable Energy Technology (PCRET), Pakistan Council for Science & Technology (PCST), Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources (PCRWR), Pakistan Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (PCSIR), Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC), Pakistan National Accreditation Council (PNAC), Pakistan Science Foundation (PSF), Pakistan Scientific & Technology Information Centre (PASTIC), Pakistan Museum of Natural History (PMNH), Pakistan Standards & Quality Control Authority (PSQCA), STEDEC Technology Commercial Corporation of Pakistan (Pvt) Ltd, and National Commission on Nano-Science & Technology (NCNST).
(To be continued)
(The writer is former President of Overseas Investors Chamber of Commerce and Industry)
